Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of data storage, and in particular, to creating an identical copy of a data storage tape cartridge.
Traditional tape systems typically store data on tape using a backup application, which store the information required to retrieve the data on tape into an external database. The tape format is usually proprietary or tied to a specific vendor application.
Disk systems store data on hard disks using a file system, with standardized interfaces that allow application-independent access to the data. Likewise, storage-class memory (SCM) uses a file system on non-volatile memory (NVM) storage and provides similar functionality using a file system on the storage media. A file system on tape is a convenient general-purpose interface to store, maintain, and access files stored on tape. File system access to tape may provide, like with other file systems, a POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) interface(s) with an operating system to enable applications to directly access, create, write and read files from tape.
Tape technology differs from disk and SCM technology in that tape is a medium that can only be accessed sequentially, even if a tape file system provides similar access mechanisms to data as for disk. New data can only be appended and previously written areas can only be re-claimed by overwriting the entire cartridge due to the mechanism used by systems to physically write the data. Tape technology also differentiates by providing standardized drive-level encryption and built-in data compression.